Really not posting here as often as I should, so I'll break the list format.I've recently been digging into some fantasy again, digging into the Cosmere universe by Brian Sanderson. I enjoyed Mistborn, read Elantris some time last year, and have now read the first two books of the Stormlight Archive (+the "Edgedancer" short novel), and am well into the third.

Not the most original material, but damn it still works extremely well. Being aware of Sanderson's grand design of all of his books taking place into a unique universe also gives quite a few different levels of reading to some of the events and references in the book, though it does feel also like the kind of project too big for its own good. (I'm still hugely disappointed with how Stephen King finished the Dark Tower series for example).

I don't mind the book being a celebration of geekdom, that was even its main selling point to me. I do mind it being this and ONLY this, and not even in the best thought way, often bordering on being a mere catalogue. Most other aspects were paper-thin, and some of the plot developments literally made me cringe.

In the end, I didn't go see the movie in a threater, but I'll probably still give the movie a try when it's available in video.

Still on the fence about seeing it. I actually didn't like the book much : the article Reigns linked about the controversy starts with a critic which sums up my opinion perefectly

Quote

“Many people find its take on games and so-called genre art to be a dull, pandering tableau of reference points as an end unto themselves,” the A.V. Club informed.

The book was all about fitting as many pop-culture references as it could but lacked coherence and meaningfulness to the point I was getting a bit bored with it by the end, there is only so much "squeeeeee" you can get out of me with cameos. I was intrigued by what Spielberg would make of such a material, but it sounds like it suffers from the same flaws, so I'll probably just be happy with waiting for it to be available on a streaming platform or another.

I played Dragon Dogma only last year and really had a great time too. As for announcements at this stage I'd be very happy both with a new Dragon's Dogma and a new DMC (and, despite DmC not being bad at all, hopefully a true DMC 5).

I quite liked the first, it scratched my L4D itch nicely, so I've done something which is getting more and more exceptional for me, I got Vermintide 2 day one, and first contact is good. Ping me on Steam if you feel like playing.

I quite like SyncBackFree : https://www.2brightsparks.com/freeware/index.html Definitely not the most simple, but I actually did want tome rather precise set of rules, different behaviors on duplicates tec. depending on source, and it fit my needs perfectly. Drawback is you do have to define your backup rules yourself.

I finished DDLC this week-end, and it may be that I don't know visual novels that well, but damn, that was largely original enough for me. It certainly twisted any assumptions I had going in. Do take the warnings very seriously though.

I loved Darkest Dungeon, but indeed some streaks of bad luck lead to absolutely impossible to avoid deaths (like when despite being at 90% light, you get surprised by enemies who proceed to land crit + death blow on your healer...) which immediately converts to a looooong grind to level new heroes.Still, excellent game, a little bit grindy.

Currently playing Nioh which I a liking quite a bit (vaguely Dak Soulsesque, with less exploration and world-building but more combat depth), and after having many friends explain to me that it completely broke the genre convention, I have decided to give a try to Doki Doki Litterature Club despite me not being a huge fan of visual novels. No spoiler yet, I've just begun (and it is still very much a classic VN AFAICS so far).

Still playing Horizon Zero Dawn (I have more or less discovered the whole map now, so I expect progression to now be very fast), and some GTA online (the new Heists they released are quite fun). Probably going to start Nioh after I'm done with Horizon.

2 flaws, Meltdown and Spectre.Meltdown is Intel only, but can be mostly mitigated by OS patches which have been rolling out already.Spectre concernes EVERY chipset made in the last ~10 years (basically any chip which has branch prediction) and has no global possible fix, just possible mitigation software by software.

How could I forget Grim Dawn. The closest thing to D2 that there is. Pretty good game. Now if you could only get a game with the best aspects of D2/GD/D3 that would be pretty awesome.

Not played all of those myself, but have you given a try to Path of Exile ? I still have to give it a try, but that's what most of the Diablo-like aficionados I know have turned to in my circle of friends.

Has anyone played Disgaea 5? Bought it for Switch last night for something to sink a bit of time into until I buy a PS4. I tend to skew more toward the items/loot aspects of RPGs, rather than story, so the weak story doesn't really concern me.

That's not how Disgaea really works. I do like tactical-RPGs, and Disgaea is a fantastic one, but it actually tends to be... too much. It's full of qualities, but there are IMO literally too many things to do and systems to explore, it's a game played in hundreds of hours, and I find it hard to find this kind of time now.